Thus were matters situated when her mother, Madame de Tournon, a
virtuous and pious lady, thinking she had cause to be offended,
ordered her daughter to leave the house of her sister, Madame
de Balençon, and come to her. The mother, a woman of a violent
spirit, not considering that her daughter was grown, up and merited
a mild treatment, was continually scolding the poor young lady,
so that she was for ever with tears in her eyes. Still, there
was nothing to blame in the young girl's conduct, but such was
the severity of the mother's disposition. The daughter, as you
may well suppose, wished to be from under the mother's tyrannical
government, and was accordingly delighted with the thoughts of
attending me in this journey to Flanders, hoping, as it happened,
that she should meet the Marquis de Varenbon somewhere on the road,
and that, as he had now abandoned all thoughts of the Church,
he would renew his proposal of marriage, and take her from her
mother.

I have before mentioned that the Marquis de Varenbon and the
younger Balençon joined us at Namur. Young Balençon, who was
far from being so agreeable as his brother, addressed himself
to the young lady, but the Marquis, during the whole time we
stayed at Namur, paid not the least attention to her, and seemed
as if he had never been acquainted with her.

The resentment, grief, and disappointment occasioned by a behaviour
so slighting and unnatural was necessarily stifled in her breast,
as decorum and her sex's pride obliged her to appear as if she
disregarded it; but when, after taking leave, all of them left the
boat, the anguish of her mind, which she had hitherto suppressed,
could no longer be restrained, and, labouring for vent, it stopped